THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



81 



liannony that should exist in a success- 

 ful method of introducing. 



Hence, I now advise the following 

 metiiod to the novice. Order your 

 queen ; and, when received, remove the 

 queen to be su[)erseded and la}' the 

 cage with the wire cloth side down bee- 

 space from tlie top of the brood frames. 

 It is only necessary to take off the thin 

 cover of the cage exposing the wire 

 cloth so the bees of the hive can dis- 

 cover the new queen and her accom- 

 panying bees. If there is not enough 

 bee candy in the cage to last five days 

 it should be put in. With my shipping 

 cage there is a wooden plug on one side 

 that may easily be removed and more 

 candy be put in. If the hive is so ar- 

 ranged that the cage cannot be laid on 

 the frames without coming in contact 

 with the cover, make a shallow rim to 

 fit on the hive ; then put in the caged 

 queen an<l bees and put on the cover. 

 The hive is then left for five days. 

 Then go to the hive and take out the 

 cage and smoke the bees of the hive. 

 Take out one comb at a time and 

 shake oflT the bees so every queen cull 

 can be seen and destroyed. It is best 

 to take time in looking over the comb 

 so as to be sure, as the only danger lies 

 in overlooking a queen cell, which is, 

 however, not great. Then remove the 

 plug in the cage, and if the bee candy 

 is eaten out put in enough to close the 

 hole, put back the cage and close the 

 hive. To make the matter a little more 

 safe, the worker bees may be let out of 

 the cage before returning the cage, but 

 either way seems to be an inlallible 

 method. 



It is a little more trouble to intro- 

 duce a queen by the above method, but 

 how many times has the novice regret- 

 ted that he did not take a little more 

 trouble! He sends for a queen, she 

 is received and is so beautiful and full 

 of promise tliat money would hardly 

 buy her. He fcjUows some of the di- 

 rect methods of introducing, and in the 

 course of three or four days finds his 

 queen near ilie entrance of the hive 

 on her back, having been balled to 



death. His hopes are blasted and then 

 he feels that if a little more trouble 

 on his part would have saved the 

 queen, he would not have minded it. 

 Neiv Philadelphia, Ohio. 



Number Seven. 



BY H. U. CUTTING. 



binding queens in full coloniea — Uoiv to 

 handle a queen — Immediate introduc- 

 tion, etc. 



The raising and introduction of 

 queens always possess a great amount 

 of fascination, especially with the nov- 

 ice. 



There are so many different meth- 

 ods of introduction that after the 

 novice has read them all, he is "all at 

 sea" which to adopt. 



I presume every beekeeper has his 

 own peculiar method of introducing 

 queens, but is it as good as the meth- 

 od of some one else? I have always 

 advocated that where you are suc- 

 cessful with your method " stick to 

 it." 



The first thing to do when you are 

 ready to introduce a queen is to find 

 the queen in the hive that you wish to 

 replace. 



Several years ago T. F. Bingham, 

 of Abronia, Mich., gave a pointer on 

 finding queens as follows : 



"Blow plenty of smoke in at the 

 entrance and as quickly as possible 

 remove the cover, and you will find 

 the queen on top of the frames." 



Later, R. L Taylor, Lapeer, Mich., 

 advocated the use of the " honey- 

 board ;" "use the smoke as before, 

 when you will find the queen on the 

 under side of honey-board trying to 

 get through. In the first case you 

 must be lively antl secure the (jueen 

 before she goes belovv. 



In the latter case simply remove 

 the honey -board, and you have the 

 queen, provided she does not fly 

 away." 



Now, for the introduction. I have 

 tried many diffej'ent methods, but the 

 most successful one with me is as fol- 

 lows : 



